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Hospice Care

Journal Article
Patient-Reported Quality Measures for Palliative Care: The Time Is Now
A recent CMS analysis revealed a lack of patient-reported measures in palliative care, particularly in symptom management and communication. We used a patient-centered approach to develop and test two measures for patients receiving palliative care.
May 4, 2023
Blog
A Look Back at the War in Afghanistan, National Secuirty Risks, Hospice Care: RAND Weekly Recap
This weekly recap focuses on why the United States “stayed the unfavorable course” in Afghanistan, the Ohio train derailment, state data on gun deaths, and more.
Mar 3, 2023
News Release
Care Experiences Are Worse in For-Profit Hospices Than in Not-for-Profit Hospices
Family caregivers of patients treated by more than 3,100 U.S. hospices reported worse care experiences on average from for-profit hospices across all of the domains assessed, including help for pain and getting timely care.
Feb 27, 2023
Journal Article
Evaluation of a Home-Based, Nurse Practitioner–led Advanced Illness Care Program
Evaluation of a nurse-led, home-based serious illness care program (Advanced Illness Care) at UPMC, a health system in Pittsburgh, PA.
Jun 1, 2022
Journal Article
Association Between Receipt of Emotional Support and Caregivers' Overall Hospice Rating
"Too much emotional support" is not always viewed negatively in consumer ratings of hospice care.
Apr 21, 2021
Journal Article
Improving Care Experiences for Patients and Caregivers at End of Life: A Systematic Review
Previous reviews examined palliative care improvements or available measures but none explicitly on improving care experiences. We reviewed literature on improving patient and/or caregiver end-of-life care experiences.
Apr 7, 2021
Journal Article
Bereaved Family More Likely to Report "Too Little" Care Than "Too Much" Care at the End of Life
Interviews with family members about their loved one's end-of-life care found that a majority thought he or she received the right amount of care. One in six said their family member received too little care.
Mar 31, 2021
Journal Article
Racial Differences in End-of-Life Care Quality Between Asian Americans and Non-Hispanic Whites in San Francisco Bay Area
Compared with caregivers of non-Hispanic whites, caregivers of Asian decedents reported unmet needs for caregiver support and lack of respect for cultural traditions and religious/spiritual beliefs.
Mar 2, 2021
Journal Article
Hospice Care Experiences Among Cancer Patients and Their Caregivers
Opportunities exist to improve hospice care for symptom palliation and training for caregivers when their family members are at home or in an ALF setting. Efforts to improve care for cancer patients in the NH and ALF setting are especially needed.
Feb 26, 2021
Journal Article
Characteristics of Hospices Providing High-Quality Care
Hospice characteristics associated with strong performance on Hospice Item Set measures differ from those associated with strong performance on CAHPS measures. Providing professional staff visits in the last two days of life is associated with high performance in both quality domains.
Jun 25, 2020
Journal Article
Differences in Caregiver Reports of the Quality of Hospice Care Across Settings
Important opportunities exist to improve quality of hospice care in nursing homes and assisted-living facilities. Quality improvement and regulatory interventions targeting these settings are needed to ensure that all hospice decedents and their family receive high-quality, patient- and family-centered hospice care.
Jun 25, 2020
Journal Article
Palliative Care and Infection Management at End of Life in Nursing Homes: A Descriptive Survey
The aim of this study was to describe the current status of how nursing homes integrates palliative care and infection management at end of life across the nation.
Mar 19, 2020
Journal Article
Health System and Beneficiary Costs Associated With Intensive End-of-Life Medical Services
The objective of this paper is to quantify expected beneficiary and health system costs incurred in association with receipt of intensive medical services in the last month of life.
Mar 11, 2020
News Release
Growing Evidence Supports Best Practices in Palliative Care
A rapidly aging U.S. population with complex care needs will likely accelerate emphasis on palliative care services. A review of palliative care research found substantial evidence to support clinical practice guidelines and was incorporated into the new edition of the guidelines.
Oct 31, 2018
Periodical
RAND Review: March-April 2018
This issue features a Q&A with Michael Rich, Soledad O'Brien, and Francis Fukuyama on the perils of truth decay, and a story on the trend toward unretirement among U.S. workers. The Voices column features Gulrez Shah Azhar on environmental refugees.
Mar 5, 2018
Journal Article
Black and Hispanic Patients Receive Hospice Care Similar to That of White Patients When in the Same Hospices
Black and Hispanic patients received care from poorer quality hospices than white patients.
Aug 1, 2017
News Release
Black and Hispanic Patients More Likely to Use Lower-Quality Hospices
Black and Hispanic patients are more likely to receive care from poorer-quality hospices. And their family caregivers are less likely to receive the right amount of emotional and religious support in hospice care. However, caregivers of black and Hispanic patients report similar or better experiences than caregivers of white patients within a given hospice.
Jul 5, 2017
Journal Article
A Systematic Review of Family Meeting Tools in Palliative and Intensive Care Settings
We systematically reviewed PubMed for articles describing family meeting tools and abstracted information on tool type, usage, and content.
Feb 22, 2016
Journal Article
Association of Early Patient-Physician Care Planning Discussions and End-of-Life Care Intensity in Advanced Cancer
Early patient-physician care planning discussions may influence the intensity of end-of-life (EOL) care received by veterans with advanced cancer.
Jul 28, 2015
Journal Article
The Invisible Homebound: Setting Quality-of-Care Standards for Home-Based Primary and Palliative Care
This article describes the current status of home-based medical care in the United States and offers a brief narrative of a fictional homebound patient and the health events and fragmented care she faces.
Jan 8, 2015

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Researcher Spotlight

Catherine C. Cohen

Policy Researcher

Catherine "Katie" Cohen (she/her) is a nurse scientist and health services researcher at the RAND Corporation. Her work advances health care quality through research and policy. Her work often includes mixed-methods, including large data analysis and primary data collection, especially from…
Natalie Ernecoff

Associate Policy Researcher

Natalie C. Ernecoff (she/her) is an associate policy researcher at the RAND Corporation. Her research focuses on developing, implementing, and evaluating systems-level palliative care, hospice, and home care interventions. Her work includes healthcare system informatics, electronic health record…

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